Airplanes, Barbecues
And The Latest Telecine

Editing Suites On LA's Westside

Working close to home can shave an hour or even two off a long work day. Time is too precious to spend watching lights change from red to green. For people living on the west side of town and lucky enough to have a say in where their cutting room is set up, there are a growing number of post production facilities to choose between. Lantana, on Olympic, is well known but here are some other facilities off the beaten track.

Roberta Margolis, owner of Runway Non-linear Productions

Runway Non-Linear has a unique location. It shares a hangar with an airplane at Santa Monica airport. It's not just "freeway close," you can fly in and, if you need to take a break, you can walk up to the observation deck and listen to the control tower guiding in the planes and helicopters. The cutting rooms are actually very quiet and comfortable, and there's a kitchen. ACE award-winners Pasquale Buba, William A. Anderson and Ned Bastille cut 'Looking for Richard' for Al Pacino there and Jack Hofstra is editing 'Firestorm' there at present. Owner Roberta Margolis prides herself on the support Runway offers its occupants, with five certified Avid or Lightworks technicians, including one trained with Lightworks in London, who are able to keep cutting-rooms running smoothly, and training for anyone who's not up to speed. Contact Runway at: (310) 636-2000 or (818) 557-0111, or check out their new website.

Woman-owned businesses are still a rarity in the film biz but, just a mile north of Roberta, Susan Klos runs Big Time Picture Company, off Olympic and Bundy. Big Time, which has a screening room for both film and video projection, has something of a family atmosphere with occasional barbecues out front. Their Avid tech., C.J., is one of those rare individuals who knows Avid inside out, having worked at the mythical Tewkesbury. Big Time also rents Kems and Moviolas, and can supply everything from cores to coding machines. 'Selena' is the most recent of a long list of features edited in some of Big Time's 40 cutting-rooms. Todd-AO West is across the parking lot. Contact Big Time at: (310) 207-0921.

The Post Group's facility, at 11858 La Grange in west L.A., is just a year old. More like offices than traditional editing suites, some rooms have large windows with serene views of trees on the side streets. And who said there's no free lunch? They have breakfast and dinner available as well, in their small dining-room. Mostly electronic, it can also run mag, even 16mm, in the transfer bay. The Post Group Westside has Ursa Gold telecine, digital component online editing, digital sound services and video duplication to a wide variety of formats. Contact Ken Quain or Richard Greenberg at (310) 979-4300.

Other places on the Westside where our members have worked: Todd-AO West, MGM Plaza, Terra Flora Plaza and even the Water Garden. Prices range from $1.65 to $3.80 per sq. foot.